Tuesday, December 27, 2011

You are the weapon.

The place had been robbed before and the clerk was keyed up and had already made up his mind to resist. When the dude came in with the hoodie and bandana and what appeared to be a pistol, the clerk coldcocked him as soon as he was within arm's reach.

As PDB once noted, better a pointed stick and a furious anger than a death ray and the soul of a rabbit.

...better a pointed stick and a furious anger than a death ray and the soul of a rabbit.

Sorry to be a prat here, but I got the first two Loeb volumes of Livy for Christmas, and there's something quotable on every page. After the Rape of the Sabine Women:

But even the Crustuminians and Antemnates moved too slowly to satisfy the burning anger of the Caeninenses, and accordingly that nation invaded alone the Roman territory. But while they were dispersed and engaged in pillage, Romulus appeared with his troops and taught them, by an easy victory, how ineffectual is anger without strength.

The "conventional wisdom" is that resisting a crook leads to more deaths. My thought is that, if more crooks thought that they'd go out feet first (or, at least, with a nose job that they hadn't planned on!), there'd be less crime to start with.

"The police cannot protect the citizen at this stage of our development, and they cannot even protect themselves in many cases. It is up to the private citizen to protect himself and his family, and this is not only acceptable, but mandatory.” -- Col. Cooper

Good attitude and spirit, but keep in mind, this was one dumb mother who tried to rob a place, then put both hands on a bag w/o his weapon. I wouldn't try this if there was a #2 covering me with a 12 gauge, unless the next order was to turn around and go to my knees. That's when you get the Double Ought in the back, so you might as well go for it.

@ Elmo Iscariot: Well, if the guy with the death ray also has a furious anger, the guy with the pointed stick is pretty much boned. But both death rays and pointed sticks are useless without the will to use them.

@ Bubblehead Les: Yes, and yes. But I would also add good tactics to the list, since he did wait until the twit let himself get distracted with the bag o' money.

I dunno, the Latin teacher I had for two years in high school was pretty sure SHE knew how to pronounce Latin. But then again, without any native speakers around these days, who knows how much it's been butchered over the centuries of hand-me-down.

1. Kris, a cornered rat is always dangerous. While clerk is leaning in with those paper towels this slug could easily gouge an eye or bite a nose.

I only mention it because you aftermath like you train and plan for, too. Let the EMTs help him.

2. I have it in the back of my mind that at the Congress of Berlin the British delegates communicated by speaking Latin. The Public School pronunciation differed so from the Continental that it was safe from comprehension by foreigners.

I was about to post on this when I saw it was already done. What is interesting is that in the interview the clerk stated that he normally carried a gun and would have shot him, but didn't have it that day. Strangely, that was edited out of this story. Always carry your gun.

I don't know if he's a southpaw but that left hook certainly does the job. Whenever I see this video I have to laugh.And he was not fired, his boss said something to the effect of "punching the crook isn't store policy, but Merry Christmas!" or something like that.

2. I have it in the back of my mind that at the Congress of Berlin the British delegates communicated by speaking Latin. The Public School pronunciation differed so from the Continental that it was safe from comprehension by foreigners.

That's awesome.

"You'd be surprised how fast a completely peaceful civilization can whip up a couple million shotguns." -- Starslip